"Missed it by that much" - Albums that should have ended sooner.

[cobl04]

it's ten times the song The Gloaming is.

 

[liamcool]

I think "Year Of The Tiger" off Strange Mercy is a particularly underwhelming ending to that album...but "Hysterical Strength", while a good song, is also not a closer.

Catherine Wheel's Ferment is also a song too long, too.

 

[cobl04]

I'll agree with that. Strange Mercy is incredible but it ends with a bit of a whimper.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Yeah I'm actually believe it or not siding with djerdap on this one. If you don't like his whiny vocals I'm not sure how you could be a fan Although I've always been more annoyed by his refusal to finish words on Lucky. "We are standing on the eeeeeeeeee" "I feel my luck could chaaaaaaaannnn"

So often I heard that lyric as 'I feel my lock and chain'.

 

[liamcool]

A few more.

Dirty by Sonic Youth; Chapel Hill could have closed that out nicely, BUT AVANT GARDE MAN AVANT GARDE

Meat Is Murder's title track makes me laugh my ass off, not feel sad.

Eureka by Jim O'Rourke ends with a nine minute long synth dirge, which is stunning...and then there's a ninety second long snippet of another song? Weird.

 

[djerdap]

A few more.

Dirty by Sonic Youth; Chapel Hill could have closed that out nicely, BUT AVANT GARDE MAN AVANT GARDE

Meat Is Murder's title track makes me laugh my ass off, not feel sad.

Oh yeah, how could I forgot Dirty? Not to mention some great tracks - like Lee Ranaldo's Genetic - were left off the record to give place for such crap.

Meat is Murder makes me crave a hot dog every single time I hear it.

 

[cobl04]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rg3sAb8Id8

 

[liamcool]

Oh yeah, how could I forgot Dirty? Not to mention some great tracks - like Lee Ranaldo's Genetic - were left off the record to give place for such crap.

It's the disappointing thing about Sonic Youth - they can write really good songs, and even the weird noise jam stuff can be interesting at times, but they had no real idea of how to structure an album or write a really conclusive closer. Even Eliminator Jr. gets by on the weirdness of having a ZZ Top-like song at the end of a double album as opposed to the song being any good.

 

[djerdap]

I disagree with most of that. Eliminator Jr. is a nice fuck-off closer. They could be very, very good with closers - Expressway, The Diamond Sea, Death Valley '69, Titanium Expose... And at least half of their albums are structured very well. Dirty was a bit of a mess because it was more song-based anyway.

 

[iron yuppie]

I think "Year Of The Tiger" off Strange Mercy is a particularly underwhelming ending to that album...but "Hysterical Strength", while a good song, is also not a closer.

Damn, Year of the Tiger is one of my favorite SV songs, and I find it perfect as an album closer.

A few years ago, I would have said Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others is too flippant an ending to The Queen Is Dead, but now I've come to appreciate it.

 

[lazarus]

Great call. That Smiths song is totally wrong as a closer, and whoever had the idea of not ending the album with There Is A Light should be ridiculed for the rest of his life.

 

[No spoken words]

Great call. That Smiths song is totally wrong as a closer, and whoever had the idea of not ending the album with There Is A Light should be ridiculed for the rest of his life.

Too bad that person didn't just die beforehand.

 

[iron yuppie]

Great call. That Smiths song is totally wrong as a closer, and whoever had the idea of not ending the album with There Is A Light should be ridiculed for the rest of his life.

Isn't it in keeping with The Smiths to fuck with their own material in that particular way, or perhaps more appropriately to play against expectations like that? I agree that There Is a Light would be one of the best closers ever, but it's also emblematic of the band to keep it out of that context.

 

[djerdap]

There is a Light would have been an awkward closer in my book. The fade-out is too sudden and it doesn't feel like the band is finished after reaching such an emotional apex.

Some Girls sounds like a nice enough coda, although the song as such isn't that remarkable.

 

[bono_212]

Meat is Murder certainly went on one track too long

Also, I really wish Hot Fuss ended with Midnight Show. I don't know if I ever listen to, or at least finish listening to, Everything Will Be Alright even when I'm listening to the album straight through.

 

[Danny Boy]

So maybe an exception to policy here, but one of my favorite "hidden" tracks is Blue Flashing Light from The Man Who. It doesn't fit the album thematically, but it's an interesting departure for Travis.

 

[Joey788]

I think "Year Of The Tiger" off Strange Mercy is a particularly underwhelming ending to that album...but "Hysterical Strength", while a good song, is also not a closer.

I love Year of the Tiger personally and think it makes for a great closer, but I will say that Actor should have ended with Just the Same but Brand New. The Sequel just sputters out.

Another album: Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid, which should have ended with One Day Like This.

Blur's Parklife should have ended with This is a Low. Lot 180 is a waste of time.

 

[namkcuR]

I have a few.

On BloodSugarSexMagik, there's that great instrumental coda at the end of Sir Psycho Sexy, but then it goes into that minute plus of Robert Johnson's They're Red Hot, which for me has the same effect of The End going into Her Majesty. I think it was meant to kind of mirror that, but I just don't think it was really necessary.

I feel like LZIII could've ended with the one-two punch of Tangerine and That's The Way. It's so sublime, and Bron-Y-Aur Stomp and Hats Off seem almost like excess after that.

And finally, I'll just put this out there: Passengers.

I love OS1, but I feel like you could cut the last four tracks off and not lose all that much. EAA is the one track on the album where I think Larry's 'self-indulgent' view of the album might be on point. And the three instrumentals that close the album are interesting, but...I don't know, I just often feel like the album loses steam after One Minute Warning. It's a great record regardless though.

 

[lazarus]

Passengers isn't even a proper "album" in the conceptual sense: that they're all supposed to be selections from different films. So to me it doesn't really matter to me if that album ebbs and flows properly aside from United Colours being a killer opener.

I'll say this about Let's Go Native: it's reminiscent of Achtung Baby in ways, and I like how it brings the sound of the band back into familiar territory after the long diversion.

 

[LemonMelon]

Year of the Tiger is one of the best songs on Strange Mercy WTF.

 

[U2inUtah]

I liked cobblers suggestion in the R.E.M. thread that Country Feedback should close Out Of Time. Low would have also been a good album closer

 

[nielsgov]

Am I the only one who likes Meat Is Murder? Okay the lyrics (and the cow noises) are a bit ridiculous but I think it's one of the better songs on the album musically.

 

[lazarus]

I liked cobblers suggestion in the R.E.M. thread that Country Feedback should close Out Of Time. Low would have also been a good album closer

Yes on Country Feedback, not sure about Low. It's a decent track but not impactful enough for a closer.

I really love Me In Honey, both musically and lyrically, but it is an odd choice to end the album.

 

[liamcool]

Am I the only one who likes Meat Is Murder? Okay the lyrics (and the cow noises) are a bit ridiculous but I think it's one of the better songs on the album musically.

I don't think it's bad, per se, but I do think that the purpose of the song is more to create an atmosphere of dread than to be just another song, and I think it fails in that sense.

I disagree with most of that. Eliminator Jr. is a nice fuck-off closer. They could be very, very good with closers - Expressway, The Diamond Sea, Death Valley '69, Titanium Expose... And at least half of their albums are structured very well. Dirty was a bit of a mess because it was more song-based anyway.

Well, that's why I like Eliminator Jr. It totally doesn't fit in with the rest of the album - after a double album full of weird arty noise rock, it's a fuck you to any audience that thinks that Sonic Youth are pretentious through rocking out over a dumb, obnoxious riff. I do think it's cool and it works, it's just a song without much substance.

I'm not a Diamond Sea fan, and I just generally don't like Bad Moon Rising at all, but you're totally right about Expressway and Titanium Expose. That manic section at the end of the latter before the long fade out is really inspired stuff.

Isn't it in keeping with The Smiths to fuck with their own material in that particular way, or perhaps more appropriately to play against expectations like that? I agree that There Is a Light would be one of the best closers ever, but it's also emblematic of the band to keep it out of that context.

Exactly. A lot of people miss that Morrissey is very good at messing with an audience, and coming off as being sincere when he's actually rather insincere.

The melody of "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" is absolutely sublime, though. One of Marr's best works.

EDIT:

I love Year of the Tiger personally and think it makes for a great closer, but I will say that Actor should have ended with Just the Same but Brand New. The Sequel just sputters out.

This is a very good example. Just the Same but Brand New is really dramatic and grandiose, and then you get a song that's 90 seconds long and ends the album on a wet fart? Blah.

 

[LemonMelon]

Am I the only one who likes Meat Is Murder?

Probably not, but I absolutely hate it.

 

[IWasBored]

Sad Songs may be the opposite of this thread for me, since Lucky You is the only song on it that I really like. So...albums that start too long?

 

[DaveC]

The Beatles album that really ended one song too late was Rubber Soul.

Run For Your Life is the only truly unlistenable Beatles song for me. The lyrics are horrible in a nauseating way. I read an interview from the 70s where John said it was the one song he truly wished he had never written.

 

[cobl04]

Let's Go Native rules.

 

[djerdap]

Let's Go Native does rule, but it would be perfectly fine if it came after Corpse or even One Minute Warning. The second half of Passengers mostly sucks.

So maybe an exception to policy here, but one of my favorite "hidden" tracks is Blue Flashing Light from The Man Who. It doesn't fit the album thematically, but it's an interesting departure for Travis.

Mosquito Song from Songs for the Deaf is a classic example of this. One of my favourite QOTSA songs in general.

To reverse the question and to stick with the same band, The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died (a song worthy of its title) is on the European CD editions of Era Vulgaris as a closer and the whole album works much better because of it.

Same thing with Going Nowhere and The Cure's self-titled. That album could have used an extra song that's actually good.

Sad Songs may be the opposite of this thread for me, since Lucky You is the only song on it that I really like. So...albums that start too long?

Hell no. One of their best albums. How can one not like Available?

 

[IWasBored]

Same as the last 2-3 times I stated my unpopular opinion regarding that album.